Patent pledges as portfolio management tools: benefits, obligations, and enforcement

Jorge L. Contreras

Chapter 7 in A Modern Guide to Patents, 2025, pp 165-196 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: With increasing frequency, patent holders have made voluntary public commitments (pledges) to limit the enforcement of their patents without direct compensation. After introducing the background and market impact of patent pledges, this chapter focuses on the effect on patent pledges on the organizations that make them, both as tools of patent portfolio management and as binding organizational commitments. To further this analysis, a new taxonomy of patent pledges is developed based on their legal structure: Type A (unilateral covenant), Type B (bilateral commitment), and Type C (public license). Following this structure, the conditions, if any, under which a potential pledge beneficiary may enforce the pledge obligation against the pledgor are explored through the lenses of legal theories including antitrust/competition, contract, license, and promissory estoppel. This chapter concludes with an analysis of the legal remedies available to a party seeking to enforce a patent pledge against the pledgor, as well as the recent case of Moderna's mRNA vaccine pledge and subsequent litigation against other vaccine makers.

Keywords: Pledge; Estoppel; Reliance; License; FRAND; Contract; Third party beneficiary (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035308590
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